Wednesday, July 8, 2009

garden fresh gazpacho


Dear Bloggery,

Summer is the perfect time for whipping up a batch of gazpacho. Whether you have your own vegetable garden, access to a local farmer's market, or shop at the neighborhood grocery store, an abundance of vegetables can be found at the peak of freshness!


INGREDIENTS
4 tomatoes
1 medium cucumber, peeled
1 red pepper
1 yellow pepper
1 medium purple onion
2 garlic cloves
dash of hot sauce
juice of 1 lime
4 cups of tomato juice(I like Knudson's spicy)
2 T balsamic vinegar
1/2 cup olive oil

for garnish~
1 avocado, sliced
chopped basil or cilantro leaves


Rough chop first 6 ingredients and combine them all in a large bowl. Add the hot sauce(as much or as little as your taste buds like) and lime juice. Toss this mixture into a food processor or blender(you may need to do this step in several batches). Pulse until you get the consistency you prefer, anywhere from really chunky to super smooth. Pour the blended mixture back into the original bowl. Add the tomato juice, vinegar, and oil. Stir to combine. At this point taste to see if you need to season with salt and pepper. Refrigerate until very cold, several hours at least but the longer the better. Just before serving, top with avocado slices and fresh herbs. If you want to turn your gazpacho into a meal, it's really delicious topped with fresh lump crabmeat or grilled shrimp.

Monday, June 29, 2009

finally!

Guess what bloggery... I was finally featured on the front page of etsy again! It happened yesterday morning while I was still asleep. Could this be the beginning of the end of my slump? *fingers crossed* Here's the treasury:



created by Lisa from justCHARMING

These are some of her charming bracelets
and she offers free shipping anywhere






Sunday, June 28, 2009

someday

Dear Bloggery,

This is my wish list for the future...someday













help with the laundry




By the way Bloggery, this handsome fella is Hamlet the Wonderdog! Whether or not we adopt a Bosco in the future, no one can replace Hamy in our hearts.

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

moments


Dear Bloggery,

Guess what? Back in February I received my first custom order on Etsy, a cowl knit in baby poo green organic cotton yarn(hehe). Well today I received an email from the lovely Kate including photos of her wearing my cowl. It's the first time I've gotten to see someone I don't "know" wearing something I made, how exciting!!!



This was definitely the boost I needed. I seem to have fallen out of favor with Etsy lately. In the past I've had my work featured on the front page at least twice a month and a treasury I curated made the fp at least once a month. I had also been averaging 3 sales per month(not a great record but I'll take it!) June is almost over and...nada, zip, zilch, zero for all of the above. Being flat broke, this downward spiral could not have come at a worse time. I've been knitting like crazy lately, got some new creations listed and I'm working on a new line of knit necklaces. Here's the first one, "knot an emerald necklace", what do you think?


Have a great day Bloggery, I'm off to knit, take photos, and list.

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Making T-Shirt Yarn Tutorial

Dear Bloggery,

I'm going to teach you something today. When I'm low on funds, I like to create my own yarn out of repurposed materials. We'll use once loved t-shirts for this tutorial.

materials:
old t-shirts, washed first
scissors or rotary cutter
straight pins
sewing machine or needle and thread



Step 1: Cut the t-shirts straight across body at underams so you're left with a large rectangle.
Save the top portion of the tee for future scrap fabric.

Step 2: Cut the rectangle into strips around 1/2"-1" wide.
*warning: there will be a lot of t-shirt lint

Step 3: Once all of your strips have been cut, lay them end to end, overlapping 1/4" and pin.



Step 4: Sew all of the strips together. Using a sewing machine saves a lot of time!

Step 5: Place your newly sewn strips into a pillow case, knot the case closed and then run through the washer and dryer on your normal cycle. This step gets rid of all the extra lint.

Step 6: Roll your new yarn into a ball.



Step 7: Begin knitting.

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Whadda Ya Think

Dear Bloggery,

How do you like your new look? I spent hours this morning following a tutorial on customizing your look, to no avail. I even got hubby's help, no luck there either. Then I happened upon another tutorial and tada....I did it, changed html code all by myself!!! Here's a link to the genius:

http://chocolateonmycranium.blogspot.com/2008/03/customizing-your-blog-part-2-html-code.html

p.s.: The mail issue hasn't been settled yet but we've managed to get the post office to put a delivery hold on the neighbors so they too are inconvenienced. Off to knit.

Sunday, June 14, 2009

Neighbors from Hell


Hey Bloggery,

Sorry I've neglected you the last couple of days, especially since we just met. Hubby and I had a garage sale Friday to earn some extra money, our 6th since March. For some odd reason it's difficult for people to find our house. And before you ask, yes, we do provide detailed directions in our listings and put up signs. Anyway, the sale was from 9-2 so hubby opened the garage at 8 to move the car out so we could set up. I went into the laundry room for a minute and heard loud voices. As I was coming out, DH was telling Mr. Neighbor to get off our property. Apparently he had a problem with us having a garage sale "because of all the traffic it brings". We consider ourselves lucky with a turn out of 10 cars during the entire 5hrs due to the directionally challenged customers. (We got 8 this day)

Beginning right after the argument, Mr. Neighbor proceeded to bring out his electric leaf blower, followed by the electric hedge trimmer, followed by the electric tree limb cutter, and back to the leaf blower. This went on the entire day...passive aggressive much!?! Our 1st customer showed up at 9 on the dot and told us they didn't see any of our signs along the way. I went down the hill to check and sure enough they had been removed. This was about 10 minutes after Mrs. Neighbor drove off to work. Do you believe in coincidence Bloggery?

Forward to about 4:30 in the afternoon when Mrs. Neighbor knocks on our door. She couldn't understand what had transpired between our husbands when hers was only coming over to let us know about the new mailbox post. Huh???? (Our block is actually a circle and all of the mailboxes are on one side of the street. This was designed and set up by the county to make it easier on the mail carrier to just drive around once. Our mailbox is across the street and shares a wood post with Mr. and Mrs. Neighbor on "their property". ) Mrs. Neighbor says their side of the post has rotted and they want to build a new one with only their mailbox on it. She supposedly went to the post office and asked permission first because "that's the kind of person she is" and was told she COULD remove our mailbox without telling us and just toss it on our lawn. But being the good neighbor, she was going to allow us to use another spot on their property where we could build our own post. How nice, kind, generous, thoughtful...

So I went in and called the post office to explain the situation. Mary, the head postmaster said no employee of hers would ever tell Mrs. Neighbor what she claimed. Removing our mailbox is a federal offense, relocating our box would add another stop for the mail carrier(not to be done), and the area where the boxes are, though technically in front of the neighbors house, is actually a county owned easement. Mary was quite livid and actually drove out to have a chat with them. Unfortunately they weren't home so Mary left them a note.

It is now Sunday, and literally as I'm writing this, Mr. Neighbor is outside tearing down the post. Hubby just reported that our mailbox is lying on the ground. Stay tuned for more of the neighbors from hell who just committed a Federal offense...

Thursday, June 11, 2009

Day 1

Dear Bloggery,

I'm not quite sure where to start. Perhaps I should tell you a bit about me. I turned 43 last month(ugh, middle age onset). I never had an interest in marriage, didn't really see the point. Well 8 years ago this past April I went ahead and did it. Who else does a technophobe like me marry...*drum roll please*, a computer scientist. You may think that would make my life easier but nooo! When I have a simple little question the answer is usually so technical and beyond my comprehension I just nod my head, say "thank you honey" and proceed over to the etsy forums. There's usually someone kind enough to explain things in idiot-speak. I had a labrador/greyhound mix, Hamlet, the best dog in the world, for 15yrs. He passed away in January:-( I'll tell you more about his antics later in another post. I live on a small peninsula on the Puget Sound in Washington. This is actually my 6th state: South Jersey, Boston, Florida, Philadelphia, Arizona and now here. Some people vacation, I move. I tought myself to knit and sew a few years ago (hubby bought me a sewing machine as a gift because he knew I had been wanting to learn). I actually make some money at it now through my etsy shop, woo hoo! Oh, I forgot to mention up front, I talk and write in a stream of consciousness so if you get confused don't worry, you'll eventually understand me ( scary thought, huh?). I also have a somewhat defective editing switch and usually just say whatever's on my mind, try not to get insulted okay.
All this chatting is making me hungry, want a snack?


spicy watermelon salad~

3T lime jc
1/2t lime zest
2T olive oil
3lbs watermelon, cubed
1/2pt strawberries, thinly sliced
1 jalapeno, fine chop
basil, for garnish

wisk the first 3 ingredients together in a large bowl. add the fruit and jalapeno. toss. refrigerate for several hours before serving so all the flavors marry. right before serving, chop a few basil leaves on top. yum.
*if you don't have a zester, use a peeler for long strips of lime, then chop them.